Where to Get a Parking Ticket in Seattle and Help Cops Make Their Nonexistent Quotas
The Friday front page Seattle Times article on Seattle parking fines is not the smartest think piece ever -- but it does give us the excuse to show off our magic crime mapping technology. First, here are the key Times stats:
Parking enforcement is the scourge of all dense urban areas. Last year, Seattle's parking-enforcement officers wrote up 508,675 tickets. That's about one a minute.
And it's about to get worse.
The city is pushing pay-to-park stations into neighborhoods, replacing spots that had been free. The number of paid spaces has increased from about 9,000 to about 13,500 in the last six years — a 50 percent jump.
Beyond the Times reporting that there is not a quota for individual meter maids, the other big scoop here appears to be that people get tickets when they park illegally. Seattle hands its tickets out at a modest pace -- San Francisco issued 4x as many tickets as Seattle last year. Via our crime map, we can celebrate Seattle's growing power of enforcement. Here are the points where tickets were handed out in Seattle the past 30 days. You might want to slide that card through the meter before we grey dot your ass.
We also have provided a zoom on the heavily-ticketed downtown area. Looks like you'll be safe on 5th Ave. Go for it, sucker!
